After reaching its peak in June 2024, Banana on Steam has experienced a notable decline in concurrent players. This article delves into the reasons behind its popularity and the subsequent drop in player numbers.
Banana Game Steam Charts Show Massive Decline
It’s a Clicker Game About Bananas…
Banana, launched on Steam on April 23, 2024, is a seemingly simple clicker game that soared to unprecedented heights, reaching an all-time peak of 917,272 players in June 2024. However, the game has not been able to maintain those numbers, with a significant decline observed from November 2024 onwards.For those new to Banana, it's a free-to-play clicker game that breaks the mold of traditional gaming. Its gameplay is minimalistic, involving nothing more than clicking a banana image repeatedly. The real attraction, however, lies in the potential for financial gain. Players can earn virtual banana items, which can be sold on the Steam Community Market. Some rare items, like the "Special Golden Banana," have fetched prices as high as $1,378.58.
The game's rapid rise to fame was driven by the promise of earning Steam Wallet funds with minimal effort. In an interview with Polygon in June 2024, team developer Hery described the game as a "legal ‘Infinite money glitch.’" This allure attracted not only genuine players but also automated bots designed to farm valuable drops, artificially inflating the game’s player count.
"Unfortunately, we are currently facing some problems around botting, since the game takes basically 1% to no resources of your PC," Hery told Polygon. "People are abusing up to 1,000 alternative accounts in order to get Rarer drops or at least drops in bulk."
In response, the developers introduced bot prevention measures in May 2024. While it's unclear how many of the game's 100,000+ players are genuine, the concurrent player count saw a sharp decline after its peak. By July 2024, the average number of players dropped to 549,091, and this downward trend continued into November 2024, with numbers falling from 400,000 to just over 100,000. Although the game saw a temporary increase at the start of 2025, it has not fully recovered.
As of now, Banana maintains a strong presence with 112,966 concurrent players and ranks 7th on Steam's Most Played Games list. However, a significant drop to around 50,000 players was observed on March 16th, 2025, between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. The cause of this sudden dip remains unclear, and it's challenging to ascertain if bots played a role. The overall trend of decreasing player counts suggests that the game's initial novelty is waning.
Despite these challenges, the developers have been proactive, regularly updating the game with trading cards, event drops, and quality-of-life improvements. They've also engaged the community by enabling user-generated banana art through the Steam Workshop, with creators earning a percentage of sales. Whether these efforts will help Banana regain its peak popularity without relying on bots remains to be seen.
